Web threats increased at dual speed in India in Q2: Report

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The number of web threats in India increased at dual speed in the second quarter of 2021, as compared to the first quarter of the year, a report said on Thursday.

According to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, in the period April-June 2021, it detected and blocked around 8.30 crore (8,30,45,576) different Internet-borne cyberthreats on the devices of KSN participants in India.

Comparing this with the number of threats detected in the period between Jan-March 2021, which was around 3.76 crore (3,76,50,472), there has been a two-fold increase in the number of web-borne threats in the second quarter.

"The increase in the number of internet-borne threats targeted at Indian internet users is definitely a cause of serious concern," Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia), said in a statement.

"In just one year the cybercriminals became almost 8 times more active in targeting internet users in order to achieve great financial gains. Indian consumers are at an even greater risk due to the lack of cybersecurity awareness and cyber maturity amongst the growing number of Internet users," Kaura added.

This places India in the 37th place worldwide when it comes to the dangers associated with surfing the web, the report said.

While comparing the threats detected in the second quarter of 2020 and 2021, the number of threats increased almost 8 fold from 1.67 crore (1,67,67,797) threats in the second quarter in 2020 to 8.30 crore (8,30,45,576) threats in the second quarter of 2021.

Infection in this type of attack takes place when visiting an infected website, without any intervention from the user and without their knowledge. This method is used in the majority of attacks, the report said.

Among them, file-less malware and social engineering attacks are the most dangerous, it added.